A Guide on How to Write a Video Game Character

Once you have created a game’s world, it is about time to fill it with characters. Let’s discuss, where you can start.

Decide whether the main character is going to be ready-made or created by the player

Some video games offer a pre-established character, while the others are dynamic. In the second case, a character is mixed up with our perception and therefore has something like a will of its own. Such characters are created to let a player believe that they are those characters (even if the likeness is super slight) and this is a really unique feature only video games can offer.

On the contrary, the established characters have a look, behavior and a story.

Before you begin writing a character, you need to decide what type of character is that, because these two options affect the relationships between a player and a character as well as their dynamic.

The main plus of creating a pre-established character is that it becomes the symbol of the game. Moreover, it easier to create such character in the terms of writing, because you don’t have to consider so many possibilities. Still, explaining a story behind such character before the game begins is pretty difficult and that’s the reason why so many games start with a amnesia.

Thus, you can also create a mix of these types and provide your character with some established traits but provide a player with some dialogue options that to develop a more personal voice.

Provide your character with a background

Writers take different approaches to the character creating process. Some of them rely on their intuition, while the others know everything about the character, from the smallest details to the most crucial.

Some writers believe that you should keep things like history and traits of character before you start writing, while the others discover these traits on their way.

If you choose a character created by a player, you may think that it’s all done and you don’t need to worry about the behaviors and stories. That’s not the case. You still have to give some reasons why the character is in this story and why is it so important.

Write main character’s arc

Once you have given your character a personality and place in a plot, you should decide their arc in relation to a story. Remember, that you should already have a general arc of the game. The general arc will stay as it is, while the character may change. This gives your character both a foundation and a flexibility.

Writing the arc of your main character, all the possibilities that may occur. After you are done with the arc, evaluate how it fits the general story and don’t worry if it doesn’t fit perfectly.

If your world allows exploration, it should easy for a character to come back to a general plot after it’s done. This makes the game feel more self-motivated instead of being controlled from the outside.

Remember that the character’s arc may match the general one or be separate from it – everything depends on your decision.

Relationships with other characters

Once the main arc is done, you may start developing the relationships between your main character and all the others, whether positive or negative.

Start with developing key characters your player will contact during the general storyline. Think about different possible ways of relationships and how you can keep a character consistent the results. It doesn’t mean that your central character won’t change, but you should maintain the core traits that make all possibilities look natural. When the options are natural, then your character is natural, too.

Fill the universe with other characters

The number of characters to include will depend on the story, but you may add new ones. For example, side characters and companions to build relationships and help your main character.

The way your character communicates with others will shape their place in a story, so building these characters is important.

In our everyday life, people define themselves by people that surround them, this is why it is so crucial to side characters, too.

So whether it’s going to be a couple of people or a hundred, fill your world with characters to provide your player with interactions.

When you have planned everything about your characters, there is still a lot of work to do before you start writing. If a video game has possibilities of different outcomes, you have to plan every detail. Once you have a clear vision of the main character and the universe, you will be able to start a really good script.

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